Circular looms



Aug. 23, 1955 J. cATRY ETAL CIRCULAR LOOMS Filed June 20, 1952 Inventors Attorneys United States Patent CIRCULAR LOOMS Jean Catry, Flixecourt, France, and Robert Norrie Low,

Dundee, Scotland, assignors to Fairwest (U. K.) -Limited, London, England, a *British company Application June 20, 1952, Serial No. 294,532

Claims priority, application Great Britain J1me 29, 1951 6 Claims. (Cl. 13913) This invention relates to circular looms of the kind disclosed, for example, in U. S. Patent No. 2,248,281, granted July 8, 1941 in which each heald or group of healds is actuated by means of a cam which causes movement of the healds against the action of a return spring and in which the healds are adapted to be retained in one of their extreme positions for the purpose of exposing the shuttles. In such a loom, the shuttles normally reenter .the shed at any points without regard to the points at which the shuttles were uncovered, the effect of this being a faulty re-entry.

The object of the present invention is to provide a method of, and means for, enabling the shuttles to reenter the shed only after a predetermined movement such as will effect re-entry without fault.

According to this invention a method of enabling the shuttles to re-enter the shed without fault consists in operating the shuttle driving mechanism independently of the shedding mechanism until the shuttles are in correct position for re-entry and then starting the shedding mechanism.

Also, according to the invention, means for enabling the shuttles to make correct re-entry into the shed consist of an intermediate trigger which may be electrically or mechanically operated and which is connected with the mechanism whereby the healds are retained in an extreme position, said intermediate trigger being under the control of a cam which rotates in conformity with the shuttles and is capable of adjustment so as to release said intermediate trigger, and, consequently, permit the release of the heald retaining mechanism at a time appropriate to the correct re-entry of the shuttles. Preferably the adjustable cam is connected with a pointer working over a dial so as to facilitate adjustment.

One form of the invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings of which Fig. 1 hi Fig. 1 illustrates an application of the invention to a circular loom in which each heald 12 is operated by means of earn I mounted on a shaft 18a driven from the shuttle driving shaft 35 through gears 36 and 37, shaft 18!) and gears 40 and 41, rocking lever 2, rod 22, bellcrank lever 23, and rod 24, against the action of spring which is secured at one end to member 26, attached to the lever 2, and secured at its other end to an anchorage 27. The lever 2, and therefore the respective heald 12, is retained in an extreme position (in this case the lowermost position of the heald) by means of a spring latch 3 which engages the detent 28.

The spring latch 3 is normally retained in its inoperative position by the tension of a cord 5 acting through a quadrant lever 29 carrying a small radial arm 4 which acts on the latch 3 through the intermediary of a leafspring 30, and against the action of a second leaf-spring 31 which supports the latch 3. The quadrant lever 29 2,7 l 5,9 l 5 Patented Aug. .23, 1 955 is also connected with one end of a return spring 32 which is anchored to the framework as at 33. The latch operating mechanism includes a trigger 7 which comes into operation simultaneously with the latch 3 for preventing the release of the latter, said trigger being .under the control of a cam 10 which rotates in conformity with the shuttles and is capable of adjustment so as to release said trigger and, consequently, permit the release of the latch 3 at a time appropriate to the correct re-entry of the shuttles.

The latch-operating cord 5 passes around, and is secured to, a pulley 6, the said cord including a relatively strong tension spring 8 in its passage from said pulley 6 to its operating handle or the like, e. g., an electromagnet 35 and armature 36.

At one point around its circumference, the pulley 6 is provided with a projecting ratch 13 or like detent capable of being engaged by the trigger 7 which has an extension 7a to which is connected a spring 14 whereby the trigger 7 is influenced towards the ratch 13.

The outer end of said trigger lever 7a is connected by means of .a cord or like link 15 with the free end of a dependent lever 9 which lies in the path of the rotary cam 10 whereby it may be rocked.

The rotary cam 10 is connected by means of an endless chain 16 with a pointer 17 working over a dial 11 and is connected to shaft 18 by means of a saw tooth or like positive clutch 19, as shown in Fig. 2, so as to be angularly adjustable thereon. The shaft 18 is driven from the shaft 18b through the gears 38 and 39, and the arrangement is such that the cam 10 can be driven from the shaft 18 through the clutch 19 or from the shaft of the pointer 17 through the chain 16.

In the latter instance rotation is permitted by the escapements of the clutch teeth, which are resiliently held in engagement by the action of a compression spring 20.

When a weft thread breaks and it is desired to drop the shed and expose the shuttles, the loom is brought to rest through the medium of an electrical relay. The functioning of the relay also de-energizes the electromagnet 35 the armature 36 of which is connected to the latch operating cord 5 below tension spring 8 and causes said spring to move bodily upwardly, thereby releasing tension on the cord 5. Quadrant 29 is then free to move in an anti-clockwise direction, under the influence of spring 32, and causes radial arm 4 to release latch 3 from the restraint of leaf spring 30 and thereby allows said latch, influenced by spring 31, to move into the path of hook 28 as each lever 2 reaches the position corresponding to the maximum lift of its cam 1, and the latch 3 then retains the respective lever 2 in said position, which corresponds to the lower extreme position of the respective heald 12.

The consequent movement of said cord 5 causes the pulley 6 to turn by an amount sufiicient to permit the ratch 13 to be engaged by trigger 7 and so prevent any subsequent attempt to move the cord 5 in the reverse direction, the effect of such attempt being merely to stretch the included tension spring 8.

While the latch 3 retains hook 28 and thereby holds the respective heald 12 in the extreme lower position, rotation of the cam shaft 18a brings the opposite heald 12 normally forming the shed to its lowered and latched position, and the shuttle emerges since both groups of warps are then under the shuttle.

The pointer 17, and consequently the cam 10, are adjusted manually to correspond with correct point of shuttle re-entry and the clutch 19 is therefore put into correct engagement. The latch-cord operating-handle is then moved to put strain on the tension spring 8 and the loom is set in motion. For a short period, the shuttles remain exposed, but the consequent rotation of the cam 10 causes the said cam 10 to move the rocking lever 9 and disengage the trigger 7 from the ratch 13 thereby permitting the guide pulley 6 and cord 5 to move, the

thereon, a trigger-like lever engageable with said ratch to prevent rotation of said rotary member, and an adjustable cam controlling movement of said trigger-like lever.

2. In a circular loom as defined in claim 1, a pivoted lever in association with said cam, and a flexible connection between said pivoted lever and said trigger-like lever.

3. In a circular loom as defined in claim 1, wherein said latch locks the heald in its lowermost position.

4. In a circular loom having oppositely reciprocable healds for forming the shed in warps for the passage of a rotary shuttle therethrough, a latch to retain each heald in an extreme position, a rotary member for controlling release of said latch, said rotary member having a ratch thereon, a trigger-like lever engageable with said ratch to prevent rotation of said rotary member, an adjustable cam controlling movement of said rotary member, indicator means mounted on the loom and marked in accordance with the number of groups of healds in the loom, and a flexible connection from said rotary cam to said indicating means.

5. In a circular loom having oppositely reciprocable healds for forming the shed in warps for the passage of a rotary shuttle therethrough, a latch to retain each heald in an extreme position, a rotary member controlling release of said latch, said rotary member having a ratch thereon, a trigger-like lever engageable with said ratch to prevent rotation of said rotary member, latch release means, a flexible connection between said rotary member and latch release means, a latch resetting means, a flexible connection including an extensible spring between said rotary member and resetting means, and an adjustable cam controlling movement of said trigger-like lever.

6. In a circular loom as defined in claim 5, an electromagnet in the stop motion circuit of the loom to control the resetting means.

ReferencesCited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS I 7 1,538,624 May 19, 1925 2,248,281 Pelee July 8, 1941 FOREIGN PATENTS 55,001 Austria Aug. 26, 191-2 

